Nixon's Ugly Legacy

June 07, 1991

Lest we forget, Richard Nixon is a seriously flawed person. Of late, the only president of the United States to resign from office has enjoyed the persona of author, elder statesman and foreign policy wise man. China? The Soviet Union? Nixon knows. Or at least he has an opinion, and certainly he's free to express it. There may even be something of value in his words.

But his words also reveal an ugly side, as the release Tuesday of additional transcripts of secretly recorded White House conversations from the Watergate era show. Here is Nixon, suggesting that someone steal IRS records of Democrats. Here is Nixon, suggesting that Teamster "thugs" be used to break up anti-war demonstrations. Here is Nixon, worrying about the possibility that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, if pressured to resign, would reveal damaging information about White House surveillance and "bring down the temple." The crude Nixon is here, using profanity and scheming of ways to "get" people he didn't like.

Nixon was petty and paranoid. Great men recognize their flaws and surround themselves with advisers who can compensate for those shortcomings. Nixon also had the flaw of surrounding himself with petty, paranoid aides. The transcripts give us chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, talking about using "murderers" to "really hurt" anti-war protesters, and legal counsel John Dean discussing how to steal IRS files.

If the United States suffers today because its citizens have an unhealthy distrust of government, we can thank Richard Nixon. Ronald Reagan may have given us a deficit. Jimmy Carter may have given us malaise. But Nixon undermined people's faith in government in a way no one else has come close to doing. "Watergate." "Burglary." "Cover-up." "Secret tapes." "Smoking gun." "Tricky Dick."

It was all so unnecessary, which makes it all the more tragic. Nixon brought himself down, something no competitor had the power to do, and in the process he did lasting damage to the nation's political system.